Here And Now

It’s May Day. Occupiers are calling for nationwide demonstrations and strikes.

On the eve of the demonstrations, envelopes containing white powder were sent to Mayor Bloomberg and six banks in Manhattan. This caused evacuations and shutdowns before the substance was deemed harmless.

In Albany, police plan to enforce Academy Park’s curfew for the first time protesters return there for what’s billed as their most boisterous demonstration since they were ousted from their the two-month encampment in December.

A (not leaked) NYPD memo warns of possible “militant eletments” among today’s protesters and a variety of “disruptive activities” including “vandalism” and “a blockade of New York City bridges, tunnels, and ferries.”

Adding to the traffic pileup in NYC: Mitt Romney and Rudy Giuliani will be in town to mark the one-year anniversary of the death of Osama bin Laden.

Chief Judge Jonathan Lippman plans to announce a new initiative to provide more free legal services at a Law Day observance in Albany. AG Eric Schneiderman is also scheduled to speak.

More of today’s headlines…

The NYT notes Cuomo supports raising the minimum wage “in principle,” and calls on him to support Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver’s bill to “show he means it.”

NYC Council Speaker Christine Quinn defended her living wage press conference walkout, saying: “I’ve overreacted in my time, So I know what it looks like when I overreact, and that wasn’t one of them.”

A Bloomberg spokesman declined to comment on the incident, spurred by a man who called the mayor “pharaoh.”

Concerned about Wal-Mart’s recent Mexico bribery scandal, NYC pension officers pledged to vote their 4.7 million company shares against five directors standing for re-election to the retailer’s board at its annual shareholder meeting next month.

Cuomo announced the members of the education reform commission he’s been planning since January. Ex-Citigroup and Time Warner Chairman Richard Parsons is its chair.

The commission is necessary because “government has failed” to achieve much-needed reforms, Cuomo said.

“I want a blueprint. I want a report that can be translated into legislation, which can be translated and enacted into an action plan to make this state’s education system the best on the globe. Period. That’s what we’re looking for.”

NYC issued its first guidelines for the use of social media in schools, stopping short of an outright ban but warning teachers to keep a bright line between personal and professional accounts.

NYC Public Advocate Bill de Blasio says it would be “hypocritical” for Bloomberg to call for the release of teacher performance evaluation data and not grade his own aides’ performance and release that information, too.

Bill Hammond finds Cuomo’s “well-intentioned” crackdown as AG on exorbitant out-of-network HMO bills “not only fell short of truly fixing the problem, but arguably allowed things to get worse.”

Rematches are the hallmark of this fall’s House races because Democrats think many 2010 Tea Party wins were a “fluke.” New York has two: Rep. ANn Marie Buerkle vs. Ex-Rep. Dan Maffei and Randy Altschuler vs. Rep. Tim Bishop.

The Regents are considering a proposal from the state Education Department to make the statewide Global History and Geography exam optional for some students. It’s the most-failed of the five Regents exams required to graduate high school.

NYC Comptroller John Liu insists he’s going to go “all the way” in 2013 – his strongest indication yet that he won’t let a fundraising scandal derail a run for NYC mayor.

Cuomo has directed the IG to investigate a “shocking” and “very troubling” report that NYRA officials deliberately withheld some $8.5 million from bettors.

Two top NYRA officials – President Charlie Hayward (who makes $475,000 a year) and counsel Patrick Kehoe ($423,000) – are on unpaid administrative leave in the meantime.

Cindy Adams on Hillary 2016: “(W)ord is she’s talking to political pros. Sounding them out. Bringing them close. If not planning to run, put it this way: She sure looks like she’s planning to walk real fast.”

Writes the Syracuse Post-Standard: “A governor who can stand up to the teachers’ unions ought to be able to say no to lawyers and accountants and landlords with connections who seek taxpayer-financed subsidies they don’t deserve.”

British lawmakers investigating Rupert Murdoch have decided he’s “not a fit and proper person” to run his massive media conglomerate.

The state Senate passed a bill that makes it illegal to sell or posses “fake” post, going one step further than Cuomo did via executive order.

Assemblyman Joe Morelle chairs the Insurance Committee. According to a D&D analysis, 63 percent of his campaign contributions since Jan. 1, 2001, have come donors with business interests that fall under that committee’s jurisdiction.

Newly-elected Assemblywoman Didi Barrett is preparing to move into a new district, thanks to redistricting.